Seminar Series: Research Strategies to Increase Vaccine Uptake
FALL 2025
Public Health in Crisis
Peter Marks, MD, PhD
Former Director, Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, FDA
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 9, 12:00-1:00 pm
Arthur H. Rubenstein Auditorium
Smilow Center For Translational Research
3400 Civic Center Boulevard, Philadelphia, PA 19104
Peter Marks, MD, PhD, received his graduate degree in cell and molecular biology and his medical degree at New York University. Following this, he completed an Internal Medicine residency and Hematology/Medical Oncology fellowship at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, where he subsequently joined the attending staff as a clinician-scientist and eventually served as Clinical Director of Hematology. He then moved on to work for several years in the pharmaceutical industry on the clinical development of hematology and oncology products prior to returning to academic medicine at Yale University where he led the Adult Leukemia Service and served as Chief Clinical Officer of Smilow Cancer Hospital. He joined the FDA in 2012 as Deputy Center Director for CBER and became Center Director in January 2016, a position her held until March 2025. Dr. Marks is board certified in internal medicine, hematology and medical oncology, and is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians.
Telling Stories, Saving Lives: Utilizing Narrative Persuasion to Dispel Myths and Increase Vaccine Uptake
Sheila Teresa Murphy, PhD
Professor of Communication, Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, University of Southern California
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 2025, 11:00 am - 12:00 pm
Smilow Center for Translational Research SCTR 12-146
3400 Civic Center Blvd, Philadelphia, PA 19104
Sheila Teresa Murphy, PhD, specializes in identifying the individual, interpersonal, community, and ethnic and cultural factors that shape people’s knowledge, attitudes, and practices. Understanding cultural diversity and tailoring messages to diverse audiences has been a major theme of her research both domestically and internationally (including India, Ethiopia, Uganda, Nigeria, El Salvador, Panama, Thailand, and Indonesia). Murphy is also an expert on the use of stories or narratives — in contrast to more traditional interventions — to change individual and normative beliefs and behavior on topics ranging from human trafficking, condom use, stereotyping, cancer screening, water conservation, and acceptance of marginalized groups such as Muslims, undocumented immigrants, and transgender individuals. Murphy has worked with dozens of popular television programs (including Gray’s Anatomy, ER, Desperate Housewives, and American Crime) to assess the impact of popular programs on viewers’ knowledge, attitudes, and behavior.
View recordings from the 2024-25 series:
Strategies for Communicating with Vaccine-Hesitant Parents
Sean O’Leary, MD, MPH
Professor, Pediatrics-Infectious Diseases, University of Colorado School of Medicine
Director, Colorado Children’s Outcomes Network
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 3, 2:00-3:00 pm
Arthur H. Rubenstein Auditorium
Smilow Center For Translational Research
3400 Civic Center Boulevard, Philadelphia, PA 19104
Sean O’Leary, MD, MPH, is a Pediatric Infectious Diseases specialist and Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Colorado. He practiced as a general pediatrician in Fort Collins, Colorado, for 8 years. Dr. O’Leary is the director of the Colorado Children’s Outcomes Network, Colorado’s pediatric practice-based research network. His research focuses on identifying barriers to vaccination and developing and testing interventions to address those barriers. He serves as the liaison to the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices for the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society. He is also on the American Academy of Pediatrics’s Committee on Infectious Diseases (Red Book Committee). He serves as a co-chair of the Policy Committee for the Colorado Children’s Immunization Coalition and co-chair of the Immunization Committee for the Colorado Chapter of the AAP. Dr. O’Leary received a BA in Environmental Studies from Brown University and graduated from University of Texas Houston Medical School. He completed his pediatric residency at The Children's Hospital in Denver.
View the recording!
The Politicization of Science and its Implications for Vaccine Uptake: Politicians, Conservative Media, and the Far Right
Yotam Ophir, PhD
Associate Professor, Department of Communication, University at Buffalo
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 15, 2:00-3:00 pm:
BRB II/III Auditorium
Biomedical Research Building
421 Curie Blvd, Philadelphia, PA 1910
No registration required.
Attend in-person or virtually (Email pmcri@pennmedicine.upenn.edu for Zoom link)
Coffee and refreshments will be served.
Yotam Ophir, PhD, studies political and science communication—specifically, media effects, persuasion, misinformation, conspiracy theories and extremism—using mixed-method approaches, including computational text mining, network analysis, experiments, and surveys. Dr. Ophir’s coauthored book, “Democracy amid Crises: Polarization, Pandemic, Protests, & Persuasion” was published in 2022 by Oxford University Press. His sole-authored book “Misinformation & Society” is expected to be published in 2025. Dr. Ophir is the head of the Media Effects, Misinformation, and Extremism lab at the University at Buffalo, a member of UB’s Center for Information Integrity, and a distinguished fellow at the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania. He received his MA and BA from the University of Haifa, Israel and his PhD from the University of Pennsylvania.
Uncovering the Context for Vaccine Communication in Outbreaks
Monica Schoch-Spana, PhD, CPH
Professor of Community Health, Department of Health and Behavioral Sciences, Texas A&M University
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2:00 - 3:00 pm
BRB II/III Auditorium
Biomedical Research Building
421 Curie Blvd, Philadelphia, PA 19104
No registration required.
Attend in-person or virtually (Email pmcri@pennmedicine.upenn.edu for Zoom link)
Coffee and refreshments will be served.
Monica Schoch-Spana, PhD, CPH, a medical anthropologist and public health researcher, is Professor of Community Health in the Department of Health and Behavioral Sciences and the Director for the Community Health Degree program at Texas A&M University. For over 25 years, she has conducted research on public health emergency management, focusing on community resilience, behaviorally realistic emergency planning, public engagement in disaster planning, and crisis and emergency risk communication. She has also worked diligently to translate scholarly research into actionable recommendations for policymakers and practitioners, including as Principal Investigator for CommuniVax – a national rapid ethnographic research coalition that partnered with local communities of color to tackle COVID-19 vaccine access and acceptance issues and put equity at the center of the pandemic recovery process. She holds a PhD in cultural anthropology from Johns Hopkins University and is certified in public health by the National Board of Public Health Examiners.
What Works to Increase Vaccine Uptake
Noel T. Brewer, PhD
Gillings Distinguished Professor in Public Health, Gillings School of Global Public Health, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
TUESDAY, MARCH 18, 3:00 - 4:00 pm:
Law Auditorium
Jordan Medical Education Center, 5th Floor
3400 Civic Center Blvd, Philadelphia, PA 19104
No registration required.
Attend in-person or virtually (Email pmcri@pennmedicine.upenn.edu for Zoom link)
Coffee and refreshments will be served.
Noel T. Brewer, PhD, is a behavioral scientist who studies vaccination, tobacco cessation, and other health behaviors. He serves as a voting member of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices and leads a WHO working group on measuring the behavioral and social drivers of vaccination. Dr. Brewer has advised on HPV vaccination for the President’s Cancer Panel under Presidents Obama and Trump and to the Biden Cancer initiative.
The Behavioral Science of Vaccine Uptake
Gretchen Chapman, PhD
Department Head and Professor, Social and Decision Sciences, Carnegie Mellon University
TUESDAY, MAY 6, 2:00 - 3:00 pm:
Smilow Center for Translational Research SCTR 12-146
3400 Civic Center Blvd, Philadelphia, PA 19104
No registration required.
Attend in-person or virtually (Email pmcri@pennmedicine.upenn.edu for Zoom link)
Coffee and refreshments will be served.
Gretchen Chapman, PhD, has been a Professor in Social and Decision Sciences at Carnegie Mellon University since 2017. Her research goal is to illuminate the psychological processes underlying decision making and to harness these findings in the design of theoretically-motivated, policy-relevant interventions to facilitate healthy and prosocial behavior such as vaccination and blood donation. Dr. Chapman's research combines the fields of judgment and decision making and health psychology. Using both laboratory and field experiments, she tests behavioral interventions, simultaneously exploring the theoretical mechanisms of decision making and also yielding policy insights into methods for improving health behavior and health outcomes. Dr. Chapman is the recipient of an APA early career award and a NJ Psychological Association Distinguished Research Award, a fellow of APA and APS. She is a former senior editor at Psychological Science, a past president of the Society for Judgment & Decision Making, the author of more than 100 journal articles, and the recipient of 20 years of continuous external funding.